Saturday, May 30, 2015

Update on Bees

Ken does many things to encourage native pollinators. He plants flowers and lets other plants like chives flower as well. The goal is for continuous bloom that bees like.

Ken also maintains honey bees. This has been a labor of learning and love. Ken can intuit what plants and animals like poultry and pigs need. But to think like a colony of bees is an entirely different thing! HE has taken classes, day long workshops in organic bee keeping, read biodynamic and organic bee keeping books, and joined the county bee keepers group.

Each time our bees do not live through the winter we start again. This year Ken ordered three packages of bees. About a week ago the state inspector was here - two weeks after the bees had arrived. He and other beekeepers (including Ken) went to different bee yards. It was another great learning experience for Ken.

The sad news here was we had two hives with no queen and one hive with a weak queen. Ken called the supplier and today Ken received two replacement queens. He shifted bees and added these new queens. We are hoping for the best!